Yesterday morning I took Teddy out a different exit in the building than usual to avoid a dog that barks at him every time we pass. I was treated to the sight of the Pink Moon (also known as the Passover Moon).
It had this big, grapefruit quality to it. Of course there was no camera on me, but as we walked around the block I got to enjoy it’s glory sitting in the sky.
I knew that any attempt to come back to get a photo of it would be futile, so if there was ever a case for not just living in the moment but actually enjoying it, this was it.
We went out the same exit this morning, and it was there again. This time I was armed with a camera, but the way this game works is never in your favour. It occurred to me that if I spend too much time chasing the image of the moon then I will miss the real highlight: the sunrise over on the other side of the sky.
I can relate this act of ‘chasing’ to work in the music studio. Sometimes we get obsessed with things happening a certain way (the perfect look at the moon), and we end up missing the whole point of the exercise: all the different ways a track can be made, and all the different people who may one day find a connection with it if we just sit down and go through the motions of seeing work done.
There is no podcast this week as I needed to give myself and my listeners a break over this holiday weekend.
Do listen to last week’s funky affair if you haven’t done it yet. I just looked and the video was viewed more than usual which is nice to see.
Elliott’s Film Picks
I’ve watched a few movies on Kanopy this month that I’d like to share with you. Kanopy is available through the libraries in Canada and the U.S. but if you are elsewhere these movies might be available on other services like Vimeo On Demand. I didn’t link to Kanopy here because you have to get to it through your local library’s website.
I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) is a day-in-the-life look at a young mom who is struggling to stay afloat in the modern gig economy. Yet everyone can relate to the stress of making things work financially. It also has some fun moments looking at life in suburban LA. The acting is not great but overall it has a lot of heart and I enjoyed this one.
Luzzu is about a Maltese fisherman who is also struggling to make things work as a system or conglomerate much larger than himself is snapping up all the fish. This one also opens your eyes to a new location and way of life similar to the movie above. It also opens your eyes to an issue that many people who live inland would never think about: How do people continue to make a living fishing when we’re depleting the oceans?
I Am the Blues is a chance to hang out with some of the last men and women of the blues down in the southern U.S. states. It highlights some of the concerns of these people: That where they live, young people typically don’t care to learn how to play the blues from them directly, and that it might disappear.
Funny enough, this movie was made by a Canadian team led by Daniel Cross from Montreal.
Bicycle Thieves is a Criterion classic set in Rome in the 1940s about a man who pawns his bedsheets in exchange for a bike so that he can work. Of course, as the title suggests, the bike gets stolen and we go on a ride trying to recover it.
It has themes that are similar to the first two movies listed here, as the main character is hanging on by a thread financially and losing his bike is just the type of thing that will tip him over.
Also, anyone who owns a nice bike can relate to the constant stress of locking it up on the street and worrying if it will be there when you come back from dinner. That’s why we spend $100-200 on the lock alone these days.
What movies have you seen lately that you can recommend?
Some updates from my friends at New Adventures in Sound Art in northern Ontario (South River, in between Hunstville and North Bay).
There is a soundscape intensive from April 29th to May 1st featuring the brilliant Hector Centeno.
There is also a call for submissions on the theme of Remote Connections which closes on June 16th.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was strongly evident in the ways that people connected or lost connections across long distances, whether to local or distant soundscapes, or between people near or far. NAISA would like to consider works that draw attention to remote connections that have had or can have significant impacts.
For its 2023 programming, NAISA is interested in submissions of work related to the theme Remote Connections and creative ways that this theme can be explored. Individual interpretations or variations on the theme are encouraged, but should be realized with sound as the primary component. NAISA would also like to encourage artists to submit works for performance, interactive sound installations and sound sculptures for indoor and outdoor contexts, fixed media audio or audio-visual works, livestreaming and any emerging digital formats that include sound as a primary element.
Take note that these submissions are connected to two awards that both encourage people who are new to the area of sound art.
On Passover we’re not supposed to bread that rises, which means we aren’t supposed to eat bagels. I don’t follow a lot of these rules in general but during the first few days of the holiday it’s nice to at least try to not subject yourself to the guilt of eating bread. After a few days, all the food options start to show up to the table though.
There is the matzah bagel substitute but I try to avoid eating it if I can. They look like the texture of brown construction paper and have a dry, anaemic quality to them. I might have one though.
They look something like this:
See you next week! 🐰🥚🥯